Texas Model for Business Revival Spurned in California

Since returning from Texas, Republican California Assembly members proposed a legislative package for jobs creation in the Golden State. Oddly, it met with resistance from same old apparatchiks with the same old fixes for an ailing economy. None of the hackneyed ways aim to improve the business climate in California. And none of the hackneyed bureaucrats at home learned from Texas.

Nothing for California in Texas
Gavin Newsom admitted learned nothing in Texas. One of two Democrats on the recent CA Assembly trip said he would take California's environment and workplace protections "any day of the week" over Texas's proven politics for prosperity. Next in line for the CA governorship after Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Newsom will likely continue the business destruction Brown started long ago.

Naysayers abound about business friendly Texas compared to California. They've missed the whole point of the Assemblymen's trip. As CA State Treasurer Bill Lockyer opines "Be[ing] more like Texas should not be our goal." Question for Bill: Why not?

Something in Texas for California business
While in Texas, Dan Logue's group asked businesses why they left California for Texas. The answers--directly from the mouths of the emigres--said California just makes it too hard to do business. That's why they left. Not for the housing market decline, not for errors reporting employment numbers, not for the financial collapse, but for the ease of doing business unencumbered in Texas. Simple enough?

A live example of business-killing motive comes from John A. Perez. The Democrat CA Assembly Speaker proposed Assembly Bill 46, a death knell for Vernon, a small city near L.A., and the businesses therein. Vernon's business leaders oppose AB 46, creating a target of opportunity for Texas to step in. In a bold move, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent a personal letter to Vernon businessmen inviting their relocation to Texas. If California is putting them out, Texas is putting out the welcome mat for them.

Just say no
What is there to say no to, with an offer like that? Californians are so stuck in their ways that unless a business is at stake, life remains la la. Moneyed and powerful political opposition to the Texas model for California's business revival has already begun.